Dallas Times Herald newspaper clipping with map of motorcade route

Both local newspapers, the Dallas Times Herald and The Dallas Morning News, printed stories that detailed the full Dallas motorcade route on Tuesday, November 19, 1963. The afternoon before the assassination, Thursday, November 21, the Times Herald printed this large map on their front page. An almost identical, though slightly smaller map published the next morning by The Dallas Morning News generated a great deal of research interest and controversy following the assassination. Some conspiracy researchers, believing that the motorcade route was changed by high-ranking officials at the last minute in order to facilitate the assassination in Dealey Plaza, point to the Morning News map from November 22 as evidence since that map incorrectly showed the parade route going straight down Main Street as opposed to making the turns from Main to Houston and then Houston to Elm. The myth that the route was changed at the last minute is easily debunked by both the Dallas Times Herald map (seen here) from the day before as well as the November 19th stories in both papers. Additionally, a concrete divider separating Main Street from Elm Street would have made it physically impossible for the motorcade to access Stemmons Freeway directly from Main Street. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator